Rue wins
by glanmire
Summary: How Rue won the hunger games.
1. Chapter 1

Rue liked Katniss. She had volunteered for her little sister, that was decent, that was brave. So she gave her a chance. She pointed to the hacker-jacker nest.

She then pointed to her slingshot.

She saw Katniss' face move to horror, a desperate I-can't-escape-because-they're-at-the-base-of-the-tree expression. Quite a unique mix of emotions, it had to be said.

Rue didn't care much. You couldn't. That was the whole damn point of the Games. If she cared about Katniss it would probably kill her.

She held up all her fingers. Ten. Dropped a finger. Nine.

It was pretty dark, but Katniss looked panicked.

So the girl who was on fire couldn't handle the heat after all. How disappointing.

At the count of one, she mouthed sorry to Katniss. She had seemed decent, but this was Rue's chance to take out the Careers. She was never going to get an opportunity like this again, and if it meant Everdeen died too, so be it. She'd have to die if Rue wanted to go home anyway. And with the Careers gone, there'd be no-one fit to kill her, except maybe Thresh. She couldn't chance it.

She was giving Katniss a chance anyway. More than the people down below got. Wasn't her fault that Katniss couldn't jump from tree to tree like her. She had no pity for the older girl.

She pulled back the slingshot, heard her stone connect with the hive and she was gone, branch-tree-branch-limb-dart along a thick one and further and further, never touching the ground. She was not silent, but she was fast, and the tracker-jackers had such easier targets. Maybe Katniss would make it down the tree in time to die in Lover Boy's arms. Now wouldn't that be essential viewing.

Because Rue's shot had cracked the hive while it was still in the tree, the tracker-jackers had all swarmed out, vicious and attacked as a group. She had considered hitting the branch it dangled from, but then the hive would fall the whole way to the forest floor. The tjs would be damaged, injured, slow to react. It wasn't good enough.

The way she carried it out worked perfectly.

The tjs killed them all.

Even Katniss. It was a shame really. But better Katniss than her. Another canon blast, another step closer for Rue to getting home.

She hated the little weak girl act she had to put on for her district, for the first half of the Games. She was the eldest in the family, she saw people shot by peacekeepers - if peace meant meaningless violence and stationary status quo - and they expected her to be sweet and cute and vulnerable?

Just because she was small and thin, they presumed she was naive and trusting. Look at Thresh, he looked like a monster, but the boy hated violence. No-one seemed to get that.

At least now, after being the cause of six deaths, maybe they'd understand now.

Only herself, Thresh, bomb-boy and the Red-head left now. The red-head was clever and fast, but defensive, not on attack. Rue knew she'd been stealing food. Stealing was punishable by death, didn't the red-head know? Well she'd know soon enough.

And she did. Rue saw her darting through the minefield. The bomb-boy, with his protectors all dead sat by the supplies now, surrounded by the hidden mines. He was fairly safe, and had the supplies, the boy was doing well. But he could never leave his little sanctuary or he'd lose his protection, so the place stank of faeces after a few days. What a way to lose the Capitol's favour. He went to all that effort, and then he just sits by his own shit? That's not gripping entertainment, that's repugnant and exactly what no-one wants to see. He deserves no parachutes, and he doesn't get them.

He had to sleep sometimes though, and that's when the ginger stole. Until that is, Rue hailed stones down the the mines. Turns out they were quite sensitive indeed. Bye bye red-head. The boy, for all his cunning, turned out to be a fool - coughing, he retreated from the first explosion and set off his own.

Just Thresh to go.

Now that would be the tough one.


	2. Chapter 2: how she would beat Thresh

Well la-de-da, wasn't she a clever girl, blowing up the supplies like that? Because she was hungry now, a pain that went beyond the familiar ache she'd always known, clenching in her stomach, twisting. This was agony, and it made concentrating difficult. Thresh was a lot bigger than her, he'd need more food. He'd be suffering more, he must be. She had the advantage.

It had been two days since she'd killed foxface and bomb-boy, and the parachute still hadn't come. She had stood out in the open, just after remains had been lifted away and when all the cameras were on her, and she had quietly but clearly stated, "I want sleep-syrup. Lots."

It was the first thing she'd asked for in her whole pitiful life, and they were denying it to her. She'd played their game, she was the best, she was winning, and they still wouldn't send her one gift, one lousy parachute. Because they still thought that Thresh, that lumbering idiot, would win, even after all she'd achieved.

She knew that she was being different, that that's not how the games work, that you don't request gifts, not unless you're dying of thirst, and even then, who's going to sponsor someone in that state? But she was afraid they'd mess it up and send her food instead. She'd survive for a while longer on roots and nuts, but she was going to die soon if she didn't get that sleep syrup.

The plan was simple, really, because she was too hungry to think of something elaborate. All she needed was that one parachute, and she'd take the sleep-syrup, and mash it into the bitter roots like paste. She'd then put that in the pot, and bundle it all back in, and make it look like the parachute hadn't been opened. She'd climb a tree above Thresh and drop it, let it float down and let him think the skies had broken their silence for him.

He'd wolf it down. They were both so hungry by now, there's no way he'd resist. And then he'd pass out. That's why she needed lots, to make sure that it knocked him out completely. He was a giant after all.  
And then she'd climb down and hold her hands over his mouth and nose until he died. It was so simple.

If only they would send the parachute.


	3. Chapter 3: where it ends

The parachute came. She watched it lazily fall down to her feet in a soft spiralling motion. She opened the package.

No.

She shoved her hand against her mouth to smother her own scream. There was no sleep syrup, just one slice of bread. One solitary slice. What did they expect her to do, club him over the head with it? She deserved better than this! She deserved one gift!

There was a note added. Two words. Make jam.  
Make jam? Yes, she hadn't eaten in days, but if she had some jam to go with her bread, well then all would be well in the world, she'd be just dandy with that in her-  
Jam. Berry jam. That's what they meant.

"Thank you", she said, slipping into that little-girl persona again, doe-eyed and docile. At least let them feel good for helping a girl out. They wouldn't love her if she didn't appear to love them too, and she was grateful, in her own way, now that she understood.

She bundled everything under her arm, and ran. She'd forgotten her hunger now, she was so ecstatic. Rue kicked the shoes off her feet and ran barefoot through the woods. She was light on her feet, and had no fear that Thresh would catch her. He was too big, she would him a mile off, and she was much faster than him anyways. She owned these woods for now. Anyway, the boy couldn't even climb, so she could always disappear up a tree if she had to.

She spent the afternoon picking berries. She had no idea which were poisonous, but reckoned some of them had to be, so put in as many different types as she could. She was careful not to touch them with her skin, but covered her hands with her sleeves instead.

Like a good resourceful young lady, she quickly made a meal for that oh-so-special man in her life. The mashed berries didn't look great, with all the seeds and burst skins, but Thresh would be so hungry he hopefully wouldn't notice the discrepancy. She slathered it across the bread thickly, and put it back in its packaging.  
Now just to find the Goliath. She would have made a good David and all, armed with her slingshot, but she wasn't sure she could actually kill him with a stone to the head. The berries were better.

After a few hours searching, she figured he was lurking around the fields past the Cornucopia. Thresh was being a clever boy for once in his life. There was no trees for her to hide in out there, that was his playing field, and he had the advantage there. She needed draw him out of there.

When she was ready, hidden up a tree, she started screaming. She started and didn't stop, piercing screams, pitiful screams, loud enough so that he would have to be able to hear her. He would come and investigate, she knew he would. Thresh had a weak spot for her. That weak spot had probably saved her life- otherwise he would have surely hunted her down by now. Well let it save her one more time. She kept on screaming.

He came, like she knew he would and surveyed the scene on the forest floor; the knocked over parachute, the bread with jam on it, with only a bite taken, the smeared blood, clear signs of a struggle.  
Thresh looked relieved. He clearly thought some beast had come and dragged her away and left her treat for him to eat, and that meant he didn't have to kill her himself. She saw him let out a breath, and then he bent down, picked up the bread and ate it.

She held the cut on her arm tight as she watched him. The bite taken of the bread was actually in her pocket, and he had just fallen for the most basic trap in the history of the games.

Thresh ate the bread, and wandered off. She followed overhead, as quietly as she could.

He took a long time dying. Clearly not all the berries were bad ones, and he was strong anyway. But by that night, he had begun alternating between whimpering and puking his innards out respectively. His face shone with a sheen of sweat. He looked positively unwell, it had to be said.

She waited, in case it was a trap. She did not intend going down there, ready to finish him off, only to have him snap her neck for her trouble. Too risky. She could wait this long.

He passed out before dawn, but the canon didn't go off until for another hour after that again.  
Rue emerged from her hiding place slowly, stiff but victorious, a vision of happiness and innocence as she spun around, clapping her hands, giggling. That's what they wanted, their little girl back, the bright-eyed tiny pretty thing that they could put in pretty dresses and forget that she was a murderer.  
She gave them their show, even though she was exhausted, bleeding and ravenous. But she still spun and laughed and smiled until they came for her, until she was lifted away, and even then, she kept smiling.


End file.
